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Two elementary students wearing backpacks, one plad, the other, red.
School Year
  1. Three Term System
  2. School Entrance Ceremonies and Beginning and Ending of the Semester Ceremonies
  3. School Excursions
  4. Student Teachers
  5. High School Baseball
  6. Summer Break
  7. Athletic Festival or Undōkai
  8. Cultural Festivals
  9. Entrance Exam Season
  10. Graduation Ceremony or Sotsugyō Shiki
  11. Class Inspection
  12. Teacher Home Visits
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Elementary school students looking at a cow in a stall
Elementary school kids visit a farm during their school excursion.
Photo from Midorigaoka Preschool.
School Excursions
During the school year, all of the students in a particular grade usually take a field trip to a local place of interest. The field trip may be designed to teach students about something they have learned about in school. So they may take a trip to the mountains to learn about the environment, to a factory to learn about how companies work, or to a farm to learn about crops or animals. Field trips provide students with a chance to interact more informally with other students and teachers than they usually do. Students are usually permitted to bring snacks on field trips; ordinarily they are not allowed to bring snacks to school. Field trips usually last for one day. Junior and senior high school students, either at the end of their second year or the beginning of their third year, take a long trip to another part of the country. These trips may last as long as week. Students usually travel to famous historical spots. Kyoto, the former imperial capital, is a popular destination. In some schools, students even take trips overseas. When students return to school, they are expected to write a short report about what they learned while they were away.
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